Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part A

 Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part A

Santanu marries Ganga and then Satyavathi

- I thought these parts were good, the story was very easy to read once I figured out all of the names and established who they were in my mind, I referenced the family tree quite a bit.

Satyavati asks Vyasa for help

- This part was also cool and interesting, when I tell my story this week I would like to focus on the women of the Mahabharata because I think that they get to explore more their lives independent from their spouses and they have histories before them. 

Ambika, Abmalika, and the Servant bear Dhritarashtra, Pandu, and Vidura

- This part was easy to keep up with, I didn’t have a lot of difficulty keeping up with the names by this point. 

The 100 Brothers and Pandavas come at odds

- I thought that this segment of the story was really interesting, I think it would be interesting to hear it retold in a different way too- like in a more personal type of feuding- there wasn’t that much dialogue in between the cousins.

Dhritarashtra tries to have the Pandavas killed

- I thought that this part was told well and easy to understand as well, I could see the plot panning out and where it was going, so I wasn’t very surprised by what happened in this part. If I was to rewrite it I would make write a bigger twist.

The Pandavas live a secret life with their mother Kunthi

- This part was interesting, I liked the part when they fought the Rakshasa, I think it would be fun to invent little stories of the things that happened to them and what they did while they were essentially in exile. 

The Pandavas are awarded Draupadi

- I think that I will end up choosing this one to rewrite and rewrite is more as a story of Draupadi being awarded 5 husbands and having her be a figure that is more respected and making her own decisions, and have it not be as big of a deal that she is a woman being given but maybe she is the person with the agency who takes the Pandavas for her husbands.

Draupadi and her spouses

Notes taken over R.K. Narayan’s Mahabharata